We shot Sara and Jared's wedding in Kota Kinabalu in the middle of the pandemic. It was small by necessity, not by choice — just the two of them, a handful of witnesses, and a world that had gone quiet around them. There was no dance floor, no speeches, no room full of people who loved them. But there was a marriage, and there was a promise, and that was enough for that day.
We always knew there was a party they hadn't gotten to have yet.
Two years later, we got the call to come tell the second half of their story — this time in Bali. Their closest family and friends flew in from wherever they'd scattered to, and we all gathered at Sungai Tinggi Beach Villa in Canggu, right on the sand, to finally give Sara and Jared the celebration the pandemic had put on pause.
It didn't feel like a wedding redo. It felt like a reunion. The kind where everyone's hugging a little longer than usual because it's been two years of missing this. We watched a traditional Balinese dance unfold under the villa's coconut grove that evening, and for a few minutes, every single guest had their phone up — not performing for the camera, just trying to hold onto the moment a little longer.
That's the thing about Sungai Tinggi Beach Villa that we didn't expect going in: it doesn't feel like an event venue. With the ocean right there and the lawns rolling out under the palms, it felt like Sara and Jared had invited everyone to their home for the best possible reason.
We've photographed a lot of weddings, but this one stuck with us differently. Not because of the setting, though it was beautiful — but because we got to watch two people finally get the celebration they'd been carrying around for two years. There's something about a wait like that. It makes the whole room feel it.
Two years is a long time to carry around a celebration you never got to have. Watching Sara and Jared finally get theirs — surrounded by the people who'd missed it the first time — felt less like documenting a wedding and more like watching a promise get kept.
If you're planning the celebration that life made you wait for, we'd love to help you have it.